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Book Reviews Wayne Grudem, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan $16.95 paper.
ed., Are Miraculous Reviewed by Jon Ruthven Cessationism, Today significant 155 Gifts for Today?
Four Views Publishing House, 1996).
368 pp.
spiritual gifts died the issue Theological Society meeting in Recently, Christianity the doctrine that “miraculous”
with the apostles, remains a hot topic among Evangelicals, being the focus of a Evangelical Jackson, Mississippi, in November of 1996.
listed cessationism and spiritual gifts as three of the top ten most issues among Evangelicals.
.
In Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? Wayne Grudem has coordinated and edited an extensive formal debate by four representative perwhose are described as (Richard Gaffin, Jr., Westminster (Robert Saucy, Talbot Seminary), Samuel Storms, Vineyard) and “Pentecostal/ Charismatic”
spectives on cessationism, “Cessationist”
But Cautious”
Oss, Central Bible College, A/G).
surrounding ment This positions Seminary), “Open “Third Wave”
(C.
(Douglas The book arose out of some 17 1) The format to to respond level.
2) Because hours of face-to-face discussion, with much labor before and afterward.
The chief value of this discussion is three fold: some degree forced the various contributors on cessationism to each others’
arguments at a careful, sophisticated of the high caliber of scholars assembled, none of the constituencies for any position could seriously claim their case was not well articulated or defended.
3) The book brought attention not only to the differences the issue of the continuation of spiritual gifts, but to the sizable area of agreement held among the participants-with agreefar outweighing differences.
last observation leads us to a peculiar paradox that emerged in the discussion. All of the participants were both “cessationists” and “continuationists”
(Gaffin’s word).
Even Gaffin, a
“cessationist,” allowed for the continuation of some gifts (41), of miracles (in the of healings) and revelation (at least in the sense of the illumina- tion of scripture and personal guidance) (343), while the “continua- tionist”
positions (Storms and Oss) denied the continuation of at least sense 1
156 eviscerates with 13:8-12 and Eph All the participants (341).
All appeared one gift: apostleship (45, 291), a
denial, Gaffin rightly notes, that two of the continuationists’ main proof texts, 1 Cor 12:29 4:11-13.
were eager to protect the canon of Scripture to be arguing, not so much the question of whether how frequently and (342f.).
“revelatory” events, according today, e.g., divine works (healing, revelatory guidance) appear today, as much as how intensely these events should be expected For example, Gaffin allows for illumination or leading (both to Saucy, 142f.) so long as one is not “carried along” by the Spirit (53). Or, God may heal “miraculously”
if one does not claim the event to be a “gift” of healing or mira- cle (41 f.). Obviously, the term, “miracle” was not carefully staked out.
some scriptural commands, that you may prophesy” ( Cor Th 5:19) do not apply to today’s reader, at least in their original sense.
but cautious,” argues that since miracles cluster “foundational”
events, we should expect far fewer of them Accordingly, best gifts, especially Saucy, more “open, around today ( 126).
not “gifts “desire earnestly the 14:1; cf 14:39; 1
or “a word of knowlHere the edge,”
but “leadings”; issue One is left with the feeling that the whole debate could be resolved by a
simple change in labels (not “prophecy,”
of healing,” but “healings”).
is not so much what God actually does today, so long as one avoids identifying these events as “miracles”
accrediting new doctrine.
By contrast, the “continuationists”
ministry of disciples mative expression example, while insist that all Scripture narrating the apostles, and others), as are parenetic: that the in power were normative for his that the essential and norlimited.
the life experiences of role models (Jesus, well as the clear commands to replicate them, Jesus and its expressions and their disciples, ad cateneum: of the Kingdom and Spirit of God is charismatic power.
In a book this size, exegetical minutiae were necessarily The many questions the writers were asked to address in the book’s for- mat-it was unfortunate to allow the discussion of “second blessing” theology to intrude on the cessationism debate-detracted from a good deal more illuminating exegetical work that could have been done. For the standard passages, 1 Cor 1:4-8; 13:8-12; Eph 4 :7- 11, Eph 2:20; Heb 2:4 were examined, they could have received a great deal more meticulous attention. Other passages, connecting with the end of this present age, were left undeveloped the continuationist position: Eph 1:13-13, 17-21; 3:14-21; 4:30; 5:15-19; 6:10-20; Phil 1:9-10; Col 1:9-12; 1 Th 1:5-8; 5:11-23; 2 Th 1:11-12; 1 Pt 1:5; 4:7-12; 1 Jn 2:26-28; and Jude 19-21. The universal principle about charismata not being withdrawn, gifts considerable potential for spiritual for their 2
157 to which Paul appeals for a specific case, the salvation of the Jews, was also ignored (Rom 11:29).
Nevertheless, Miraculous Gifts represents a major breakthrough in the debate on cessationism: nothing quite like it in terms of depth and sophistication has ever previously appeared in one volume. Oss and Storms implicitly framed the debate as one between biblical theology and traditional dogmatics.
It demonstrates just how far the balance has swung from cessationism in the last two decades.
Despite this, the participants remain, to varying degrees, theo- logically enthralled with the confining, historically-conditioned terms of the cessationist debate as framed by the Reformers. Future discus- sion on cessationism cannot advance fully until the interlocutors break this spell and develop a radically biblical understanding of the follow- ing concepts underlying cessationism: 1) sign/miracle/attestation, 2) apostle, 3) “foundation,”
and ultimately, 4) the essential expression of the Christian gospel beyond “word” to “word and deed”
(as in Lk 24:19; Rom 15:18).
1) Philosophy has advanced the discussion on “miracle” far beyond that found in this present work, as has biblical theology with the con- cept of “sign.” Many today would argue that the unfortunate English translation “sign”
trivializes the profound NT concept with a Thomistic, evidentialist, extrinsicist flavor. That is, a
“sign”
has no value except that it points to something which has (66, 105). By con- trast, the NT “sign”
is much more organic and integrated with the gospel: if a heartbeat may be used as a “sign” that a person is alive, it cannot mean that the heart must, perforce, stop beating when the stethoscope is removed (cessationism), although Acts seems to be using the phenomena of Spirit baptism as a normative indicators for inclusion into the church. In the NT the mighty works do not attest the gospel so much as they express the gospel.
Just as preaching is a “wit- ness” to God’s message, quite similarly, miracles are a parallel “wit- ness”
(Heb 2:1-4).
2) The Reformers’ anti-Romanist polemics left us with the idea that a NT apostle is essentially a l6th century pope-replete with ulti- mate religious authority, but safely stuck in the first century.
Can we rid ourselves of the anti-biblical spectre of apostolic succession long enough to examine how a gift of apostleship might operate in the NT and today?
Is the narrative on the criteria for apostleship (Acts 1 :22- 26) prescriptive or descriptive?
If Evangelicals see this
